Atop a Mississippi River bluff in Burlington sit the childhood homes of Aldo Leopold, arguably the most significant conservationist of the 20th century and perhaps even to this day. Author of the seminal A Sand County Almanac (1949), Leopold changed mainstream thinking about human relationships with the natural world through his idea of “the land ethic.”
In that titular essay, Leopold asserts, “All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise; that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land. . . . A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
Born in 1887, Aldo developed his sensitivity to the beauty and interrelationships of nature in the southeastern Iowa landscape, as well as his talent for observation by cataloging birds on his home ground. After growing up in Iowa, Leopold attended Yale’s forestry school, then worked for the U.S. Forest Service in the Southwest, proposing the first national wilderness area, now Gila National Forest.
In 1924, he became associate director of the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, and in 1933 was appointed professor of game management at the University of Wisconsin, virtually inventing the field of wildlife management. As research director of the UW-Madison Arboretum, he helped establish the first ecological restoration in the world. In 1935, Leopold purchased a worn-out farm along the Wisconsin River, and he and his family — wife Estella and their five children — refurbished the chicken coop into a small family cabin (called “the Shack”) and set about restoring the native forest and prairie there. Now owned by the Aldo Leopold Foundation, the land and Shack are preserved for anyone to visit and learn about the Leopold legacy.
Today, the Leopold Landscape Alliance owns the two homes that comprise the Leopold homestead on Clay Street in Burlington. In addition to tours, the LLA organizes programs and events that promote conservation and the Leopold legacy, especially the Burlington influence on the young Aldo as he developed his philosophy and land ethic. Iowans can also visit Leopold’s grave in Burlington’s Aspen Grove Cemetery.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s December 2023 issue as a part of Peak Iowa, a collection of fascinating state stories, sites and people.
